The pressure of blood within the heart is fundamental to the diagnosis, treatment and management of cardiac disease. The standard method of measuring heart pressure is by means of a catheter, a long, thin flexible plastic tube that is directed into the chambers of the heart either through the skin directly or maneuvered through the arteries or veins and positioned within the heart or pulmonary vessels. Because these devices require penetration of the skin and direct physical connection to the measurement instrumentation, they can be left in place only for short periods of time. The need for additional measurements then requires reinsertion of the catheter into the patient.
Thus there is a need for an improved method for measuring pressure within the heart.
There is a further need for a method for measuring pressure within the heart that does not require reinsertion and removal of the measuring device for future measurements of pressure within the heart.